Repression – Page 32

Italy: An important update regarding anarchist Alfredo Cospito: the re-examination hearing for the 41 bis measure will be held on December 1

Posted on 2022/11/13 - 2022/12/02 by darknights

Update on the situation of Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike since October 20 against the 41 bis and life sentence without possibility of parole.

Alfredo has lost 16 kilos to date and is in good health overall. He is not yet taking any food supplements. We also inform that the re-examination of the 41 bis measure against him has been set for December 1st. The hearing is very important as it will have to rule on the legitimacy of the decision of the previous minister of justice Marta Cartabia to apply the 41 bis prison regime against our comrade.

Note of “La Nemesi”: The hearing will almost certainly be held at the surveillance court in Rome, which has sole jurisdiction over the decision to ratify or terminate detention under the 41 bis regime.

[Translated by: https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2022/11/08/an-important-update-regarding-anarchist-alfredo-cospito-the-re-examination-hearing-for-the-41-bis-measure-will-be-held-on-december-1-italy/]

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(IT) Un aggiornamento importante riguardo l’anarchico Alfredo Cospito: il 1° dicembre si terrà l’udienza di riesame per il provvedimento di 41 bis
(EN) An important update regarding anarchist Alfredo Cospito: the re-examination hearing for the 41 bis measure will be held on December 1 (Italy)

Italy: Declaration of start of hunger strike by anarchist Anna Beniamino in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, alongside Juan Sorroche and Ivan Alocco, against 41 bis

Posted on 2022/11/13 by darknights

Declaration of start of hunger strike by anarchist Anna Beniamino in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, alongside Juan Sorroche and Ivan Alocco, against 41 bis (Italy, November 7, 2022)

Here the translation of the declaration about the beginning of the hunger strike by anarchist Anna Beniamino, imprisoned in Rebibbia women’s prison in Rome, in solidarity with anarchist Alfredo Cospito, who went on hunger strike, indefinitely undertaken since October 20th, against the 41 bis prison regime to which he was transferred on May 5th and against life imprisonment without possibility of parole. The comrade started her hunger strike on November 7th. We recall that comrades Juan Sorroche (in Terni prison, since October 25th) and Ivan Alocco (in the French prison of Villepinte, since October 27th) also went on hunger strike for the same reasons. Revolutionary solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, Juan Sorroche, Ivan Alocco, Anna Beniamino and all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries.

On October 20th, in the prison of Bancali (Sassari, in Sardinia), Alfredo Cospito began an all-out hunger strike against the 41 bis regime and life sentence without parole.
The regime 41 bis was assigned to him from May this year, being accused of maintaining relations through correspondence and editorial activity with the anarchist movement through public writings and interventions from the Maximum Security section where he had been locked up for years.

Life imprisonment without parole is likely to be the outcome of the appeal – made by the cassation ruling of July 2022 of the Scripta Manent trial – for the recalculation of the sentence passed as 285 of the penal code, “political massacre”, for a double attack on the carabinieri school of Fossano, signed by FAI-RAT [Federazione Anarchica Informale – Rivolta Anonima e Tremenda, ‘Informal Anarchist Federation – Anonymous and Tremendous Revolt’].
The sentence for 285 c. p. constitutes the keystone of an accusatory architecture which established the existence of a “subversive association with terrorist aims” (made up of only three promoters and with a sporadic existence, to overcome contradictions due to the outcomes of previous trials) and the activity of “instigating” through anarchist blogs and newspapers published over the past 20 years by those convicted.
In short, a monstrous sentence where one is head/factotum of an “association” with uncertain contours, as well as instigators and perpetrators of a “massacre” that never happened and above all never defended as such. That is, as has been repeatedly stated in times past, revolutionary violence is defended by anarchists, and by me among them; massacre is not.
What the court papers and the directives of the secret services and prevention apparatuses variously call internal subversion or terrorism and comes to be enclosed in a series of offences (subversive association, massacre, devastation and looting…) taken verbatim from the Rocco Code still in force, are actually pieces of the revolutionary tension and the quest for freedom and social justice. That the latter and the justice administered by the courts are antithetical worlds is no news to anyone with a minimum of knowledge of the historical and political history of movements, ideas and practices that are refractory to the status quo: the bigger and more complex the accusation, the more difficult it is to bring events back to reality. Along these lines, one finds oneself a defendant in trials with farcical “truths”, where it is the political identity, not the facts, that constructs the crime that buries you alive. Continue reading “Italy: Declaration of start of hunger strike by anarchist Anna Beniamino in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, alongside Juan Sorroche and Ivan Alocco, against 41 bis” →

UK: Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone Fights New Battle Against Fascist UK State

Posted on 2022/10/28 - 2022/10/28 by darknights

Imprisoned anarchist Toby Shone is fighting a new battle as he counts down the weeks to his halfway release on December 28th 2022.

As the UK collapses into something resembling a tin-pot dictatorship and a Victorian poorhouse, Toby continues to be targeted by the Probation Service and their colleagues in the Counter-Terror National Security Division and MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) for his ‘thought crimes ‘, ‘anarchism’ and ‘alternative lifestyle’.

In September, Toby was informed that Cardiff-based probation officer Paul Smith had booked a series of interviews for him (without communicating these to his lawyers as instructed) with forensic psychologist Dr Harriet Chapman from the Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology, University of Birmingham. Dr Chapman’s intention was to interrogate Toby under the Extremism Risk Guidelines formulation tool, ERG22+. This assessment which is “intended for use with people who have been convicted of any extremist or extremist-related offence” (which he hasn’t been) considers at least 22 factors by which an individual can be regarded as an extremist and thus be subject to de-radicalisation measures. We could find no public paper detailing these 22 factors or the format of the interview.

These largely experimental and deeply authoritarian de-radicalisation measures, which appear to be rolled out on a one-to-one basis, include the Healthy Identity Intervention, Desist and Disengagement Programme, Motivational and Engagement Intervention and Developing Dialogues. All of these are highly invasive, intensive programmes designed to investigate and dismantle a targeted individual’s personal narrative, childhood and influences, to attempt to undermine their critique of the existent, to isolate them from their relationships and affinities and to re-mould them into the perfect citizen under conditions of duress. Think re-education camps and political indoctrination. In effect they are seeking to “pathologise” the holding of anarchist beliefs: anarchism as a psychological illness. This tactic of “punitive psychiatry” has been used by other authoritarian states, most notably Soviet Russia, China and the USA. Continue reading “UK: Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone Fights New Battle Against Fascist UK State” →

Chile: Urgency requires forcefulness: Let’s get Alfredo Cospito out of isolation. Words from comrade Francisco Solar

Posted on 2022/10/28 - 2022/11/16 by darknights

The hunger strike as a tool of struggle is the last resort that the prisoner has to combat the suffocating life in prison. It is an extreme measure in which the body is used as the last trench of combat. The urgency determines the decision to carry out a struggle of these characteristics. An urgency that, undoubtedly, presents today the situation of comrade Alfredo Cóspito, whom the Power tries to silence under an insane isolation.

They perceived his actions as hard blows which, if replicated and multiplied, would put the imposed order in trouble.

They saw in his writings and proposals important contributions to seditious ideas and practices that constitute a danger to any expression of authority.

And they are not wrong.

For these reasons they have decided to apply the 41 bis to Alfredo. In the face of this onslaught we have no choice but to respond with strength, with decision, being clear that this is a struggle for Alfredo and for all of us who take a stand against power. Understanding the importance of fighting this battle, perceiving it as an opportunity to strengthen ties and complicities in an internationalism of action.

This is not a time for reflection or debate. It is a time for war, for violent irruption, to give life and strengthen that revolutionary solidarity that constitutes part of our practical arsenal that we know how to use.

Let us nourish ourselves of our past experiences to make the best of what is ours and let us crack this civic normality with forceful blows that demonstrate the danger of anarchic solidarity.

Let us leave aside the victimist discourses and let us attack Power wherever it is, since that is the only way we have to get Alfredo out of isolation and put an end to 41 bis. And the more forceful these attacks are, the greater their impact will be and, therefore, their capacity of incidence and irruption will increase, which will certainly strengthen the expressions of anarchic solidarity.

Let’s get Alfredo Cóspito out of isolation!

Let’s put an end to 41 bis!

Long live Anarchy!

Francisco Solar

La Gonzalina Prison – Rancagua

October 2022

Source: Publicacion Refractario

Chile: Words of Mawvnhko. Public statement on the repeated violation of visiting rights and body search protocols

Posted on 2022/10/28 by darknights

A few weeks ago at San Miguel prison, the visiting and entrustment schedule was modified due to the cessation of COVID19 preventive measures. This adjustment consists of: One day of parcels (toiletries and clothing) and two days of visitation, with the condition that only the visit that is during the week is allowed the delivery of food from the outside (food bowls with food, fruits, snacks, among others).

Today, Wednesday, October 19, the prison only had 5 officials to carry out the protocol review, both of people and food. The visiting hours provided is from 09.00 to 11.30 hrs, at about 11.20 hrs there were still colleagues in the visiting area waiting to let in their relatives, even when the bell rang at the end of the visit, not all family members had entered, the right to visit was denied and they were only allowed to receive the bags with food and the family member had to leave immediately, in some cases the visit did not last more than 10 minutes.

To make the situation worse, the gendarmerie officers who carried out the body search protocol demanded that the people undress, forced the women to lower their underwear to make a vaginal inspection with a paddle that rubbed all those who were subdued, threatening that they would not let them enter if they did not give in. I speak of subjugation at this particular point since stripping is a totally forbidden practice and the sensors must be worn over the clothes. Under no circumstances can women be required to show their breasts, vagina or anus, since that is what the digital sensors are for. Faced with this situation, the officials responded that it is part of the protocol, that it has always been like that, when they were summoned regarding an informative poster that exists outside the prison about the body search, they responded that it was “old”, that it no longer exists.

We cannot continue to allow humiliation and denigration to be customary, although these practices have been normalized in the prison daily life, we must not allow them to continue or to go unnoticed, because this is how the jailers exceed their functions, turning the visit into a humiliating experience, totally humiliating. We should not continue to compromise our dignity just so that the jailer will grant us a visit, visits are NOT a benefit and we do not owe them thanks, they are a right explicitly stated in the Prison Regulations.
All these experiences are common in prisons throughout the territory, even I myself lived it when I visited other prisons. It is up to us to do something about it and not let these abusive practices continue!

Mawvnhko.

Source: Publicacion Refractario

France: Declaration of start of hunger strike by anarchist Ivan Alocco in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2022/10/28 by darknights

For the past few days in Italy, fellow anarchist Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike against being subjected to 41 bis, the “special prison.”

Once again, Alfredo is also fighting for each and every one of us. So that we do not resign ourselves to increasing repression as a fatality.

Although my situation is far from comparable to his, I stand by his side.

Being locked up, I have limited room for maneuver. On Thursday, Oct. 27, I therefore begin a hunger strike in solidarity with his struggle.

I am aware that my gesture is only symbolic and I do not know how long I will be able to keep it up. But I hope that this small gesture can help him in his determination.

And that the determination of all of us can turn into action.

Head up!
Long live anarchy!

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Comrade’s address:

Ivan Alocco
N. d’ecrou 46355
Maison d’Arrêt de Villepinte
40, Avenue Vauban
93420 Villepinte
France

Source: La Nemesi

Italy: We do not allow the murder of Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike since October 20th. Call for international mobilization

Posted on 2022/10/28 - 2022/10/30 by darknights

On October 20th, anarchist Alfredo Cospito, during a trial at the Sassari surveillance court, made an attempt to read an articulate statement in which he was about to announce that he is starting a hunger strike against the 41 bis prison regime to which he is subjected and against life imprisonment without possibility of parole. A battle that Alfredo does not intend to stop, until his own death. The comrade, who has been in 41 bis since last May 5th, under a decree signed by then Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia, is now being detained in the Bancali prison in Sardinia.

Alfredo Cospito is an anarchist who has always been at the front line of struggles, never willing to compromise or give up. He is a comrade who has been fighting since the late 1980s, a period in which he was imprisoned as a total objector (for refusing to serve in the obligatory military service) and who, after his arrest in 2012, during the trial that followed, claimed the responsibility for the shooting of Ansaldo Nucleare executive Roberto Adinolfi, an act that was carried out by Nucleo Olga / Federazione Anarchica Informale – Fronte Rivoluzionario Internazionale, FAI-FRI (“Olga Nucleus” / Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front), and occurred on May 7th of the same year in Genoa.

Alfredo has been always active in the defense of comrades affected by repression, in every corner of the world. His struggle objectively concerns all detainees, among whom we particularly remember the three militants of Brigate Rosse per la costruzione del Partito Comunista Combattente (Red Brigades for the construction of the Combatant Communist Party) locked up for more than 17 years in 41 bis (Nadia Lioce, Roberto Morandi, Marco Mezzasalma). In 2009, comrade Diana Blefari, from the same organization, committed suicide after her living in this harsh prison regime.

Alfredo has been uninterruptedly in prison for 10 years, which he spent in High Security sections until his transfer to 41 bis. In 2016 he was involved in repressive operation “Scripta Manent”, accused of subversive association with the purpose of terrorism and multiple explosive attacks. Following a Supreme Court verdict in July this year, the sentence for Alfredo and Anna Beniamino was reformulated to “political massacre,” the only punishment which means prison for life. The Italian state that has always been protecting fascist mass murderers now wants to condemn two anarchists for massacre for an attack that caused neither victims nor injuries. Continue reading “Italy: We do not allow the murder of Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike since October 20th. Call for international mobilization” →

Germany: All my friends are bad kids! – about a (meanwhile discontinued) §129-proceeding against anarchists in Hamburg and Bremen

Posted on 2022/10/22 - 2022/10/22 by darknights

In the following we want to inform you about a procedure according to §129 in Hamburg and Bremen, describe the collective handling of it and give space to individual voices of affected people.

In summer, some people in Hamburg and Bremen opened their mailboxes and there they were again: letters from the Chief Public Prosecutor Schakau of the General Prosecutor’s Office in Hamburg. From 26.05.2020 to 25.07.2022 investigations of different authorities in a §129-procedure against anarchists in Hamburg and Bremen took place. It was about an association construct to which direct actions, mainly in Hamburg, should be assigned over a longer period of time.
Three of the five people against whom the investigations were mainly directed had already been convicted in 2020 in the so-called Parkbank proceedings and were the three official defendants in these proceedings. In the course of the investigation, two other people were selected as potential members of the constructed association, who were similarly investigated.
It all starts (for us) with a report from the BKA to the Attorney General’s Office suggesting proceedings under §129a (formation of a terrorist organization) against the three defendants. However, this is rejected by Attorney General Geilhorn, as are proceedings under §129 (formation of a criminal organization) at the federal level.
One day later, proceedings under §129 begin in Hamburg, led by Chief Public Prosecutor Schakau. In the course of these investigations, measures are initiated against all five suspects of membership; these run from the beginning of May to the beginning of August 2021 and include observations with photo and video recordings, telecommunications surveillance (tapping telephone conversations and reading text messages), the use of IMSI catchers and silent text messages, as well as Internet surveillance (especially the reading of all known and accessible e-mail inboxes).

In the course of this, a large part of the environments of the five defendants were investigated and a large number of people were affected by almost all of the measures. In this context, it should be mentioned that there were at least two people who were not constructed as (potential) members, whose phones were tapped separately with harebrained explanations. It should also be mentioned that the observations and wiretapping measures took place across federal states (Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Bavaria and Saxony) and in several cases by administrative assistance also in other European countries (Austria, Belgium and Spain).
Ultimately, the proceedings are discontinued on 25.07.2022, officially for lack of evidence. “Officially”, because of course – as we know – parallel surveillance against some defendants also took place according to other paragraphs, also under the sign of police “danger defense”. A more detailed processing of the investigations in the sense of “files for all” will be given elsewhere and at a later time. Continue reading “Germany: All my friends are bad kids! – about a (meanwhile discontinued) §129-proceeding against anarchists in Hamburg and Bremen” →

Germany: The Italian state sentenced Juan to 28 years in prison DE/EN

Posted on 2022/10/17 by darknights

DER ITALIENISCHE STAAT VERURTEILT JUAN ZU 28 JAHREN IM GEFÄNGNIS.

Am 9. Juli wurde unser Gefährte Juan wegen eines Sprengstoffanschlags auf ein „Nord Liga“-Hauptquartier in Treviso (Italien) mit einer „terroristischen Absicht“ zu 28 Jahren Gefängnis und einer anschließenden dreijährigen Bewährung, verurteilt.
Wenige Tage zuvor hatte das Kassationsgericht den Angriff auf eine Carabinieri-Kaserne in Fossano (Italien), für den die anarchistischen Gefährten Anna und Alfredo in der Berufung verurteilt worden waren, erneut als „politischer Massenmord“ (ein Verbrechen, das mit lebenslanger Haft bestraft wird) eingestuft. In der Zwischenzeit wurde Alfredo in das 41bis-Gefängnisregime verlegt, ein Regime der totalen Isolation, eine Form der Folter, das darauf abzielt, den Gefangenen zur Abschwörung, Reue, Distanzierung und zum Verzicht auf seine eigene Identität und seinen revolutionären Weg zu zwingen.
Die unverhältnismäßig hohen Haftstrafen (im wesentlichen lebenslänglich) und die Anwendung vom 41bis stellen einen beispiellosen Angriff auf die anarchistische Bewegung dar.
Sie stellen den Versuch des Staates dar, das Spiel mit einem Milieu zu beenden, das subversiv und revolutionär geblieben ist und das jahrzehntelange Ermittlungen und Verhaftungen nicht zu brechen vermochten.

SOLIDARITÄT MIT JUAN, ANNA, ALFREDO
GEGEN DIE FOLTER VON 41 BIS, FREIHEIT FÜR ALLE
DER TERRORIST IST DER STAAT

Der Schmerz und die Wut, die durch die Kenntnis um unsere von den Haftstrafen betroffenen Gefährten verursacht werden, deren Haftende wir nicht erahnen können, stärken nur unsere Überzeugungen:
Wir werden weiterhin den Weg des Kampfes beschreiten, den des ständigen Konflikts, der direkten Aktion. Wie immer, aber ab heute mit einem Grund mehr.

Anarchistinnen und Anarchisten Continue reading “Germany: The Italian state sentenced Juan to 28 years in prison DE/EN” →

Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for a raid on a riot squad of MAT

Posted on 2022/10/17 by darknights

…And life became the biggest lie

There is no police brutality

There are only bloodthirsty protesters in a brutal fury

with the breakneck speed of desperation

the com-mat-asfalites1, the chemical tear gas, the shields.

the helmets, the incubating cages

the snake eggs of the fascist crawling society….

George Tsingos and the Black Circles

Watching the domestic news of the last few months, one will see that despite the social reactions that have developed, the isolation and suppression of the antagonistic movement as well as the imposition of unprecedented social control measures remains a key objective of the Greek state. The gentrification of Exarcheia includes the construction of a metro station in the square, the redevelopment-privatisation of the Strefi Hill and the blocking of access to the Polytechnic and aims to uproot the revolutionary tradition of the area. Similarly, the installation of MAT platoons and all kinds of cops inside the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki aims to sterilize the university premises from any voice of opposition to the bosses. But beyond hitting the movements, the hiring of thousands of new cops, the millions given to equip the police and their constant presence in the public arena on every occasion set the tone of the new social contract. And all this at a time when society is being impoverished anew, with precision pushing those from below to the limits of survival. In a nutshell as Petsas arrogantly informed us adaptation (to capitalist and state dictates) or death.

The effort by the current government to restructure the education system and especially the universities begins the very next day after its election with the abolition of the university asylum. Their pretext was to crack down on lawlessness and instil a sense of security. This was followed by the passing of Law 4777 in the midst of quarantine to avoid major social reactions. The response to those that were manifested was a display of fierceness and brutality. Just a few examples:

the pulling of a gun by a cop at the ΑΣΣΟΕ (Athens School of Economics)
the two evacuations of the occupied rectorate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the space of one month in 2021
the evacuation of the steki at the Biologcko
the hundreds of injuries, beatings and arrests in the last two years in student mobilizations
the firing of asphyxiant inside the ΣΘΕ (School of Sciences) in broad daylight with hundreds of students and workers trapped inside the building and suffocating
the hitting and severely injuring of a student with a flashbang grenade fired at point-blank range
the murderous attack on the crowd attending Thanasis Papakostantinou’s concert during the 3rd Libertarian Festival of Occupied Spaces and Collectives, which almost resulted in people being trampled.

Continue reading “Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for a raid on a riot squad of MAT” →